Matricianella — Restaurant in Rome

Fancy restaurant in the touristic area. The table looks good. The waiters not very friendly but doing their job. You get the wine card (I should say wine book). It was impressive. Hundreds of wines some very expensive ones.. Ok

Then you get the food and begins the disappointment : Litteraly two small balls of mozzarella DE Buffala with exactly 6 cherry tomatoes cuted in halves. No spices to taste. 12€.. You get some bread 2.5€. (I have to précise that I didn't ask for the bread, it was on the table.. Nothing special just some bread they charged . I ate it so I paid even if I didn't ask for it.. But I found that very very cheap..) -Carciofo alla giudia: typical Roman plate made with 1 fried artichoke. It was not good at all. If I haven't had the same plate in some other Roman restaurants I would say it's just a tasteless plate. The heart of the artichoke was hard dry and raw while the leaves were burned.. I don't know how the others do it (not only one other, but many other restaurants where I tried the same plate ) but the carciofo in la matricianella was awfull..

We got as secundos: coda alla vaccinara (roman traditional oxtail cooked in tomato sauce) it was far from the best I've had. Just OK, not particularly bad. And abbachio which is a Roman lamb cooked AL forno with potatoes. The potatoes were dry. I mean even at home I ate a better lamb.. No comment.

So globally you can get better roman food almost anywhere else in Rome and for much cheaper.. I consider this restaurant as a trap for tourists since it's located in the center of a touristic area. There was no Italian or almost no italien in the restaurant. And after that dinner I understood...

This is one of the many “must-try” restaurants of Rome, in my opinion.

It’s located on a narrow street in the downtown area, pretty close to both Montecitorio and Piazza di Spagna, and it’s been there since 1957 (The name comes from the founders, who had moved from the town of Amatrice, in Central Italy).

We were there for lunch, and it was super-packed: I can’t imagine how busy this place is for dinner. We didn’t have reservations, but we decided to wait nevertheless, and finally got a table in their outdoor patio. The tables outside are a little small and maybe a little bit too close to each other; however, not only it didn’t bother us, but we also had a pleasant conversation with a foreign couple at the table nearby.

They have a great selection of wines, and we definitely enjoyed that. . I had the tonnarelli cacio e pepe, and my husband ordered the special of the day that was gnocchi with spinach in a wonderful tomato sauce.

The food was exquisite, the portions were very generous, and the prices were decent.

Regarding the staff: the lady who accompanied us to the table was apparently having a bad day (in all fairness: the place was crazy-busy), but the guys who served us were amazing and very friendly.

We will surely come back next time...

I was extremely disappointed with this restaurant. The food was good, not great, but decent. The service however was really lacking. Foreigners do get treated differently and carelessly. As customers, we are all paying the same amount of money for the food, so why the difference in service and attention? When the time came for the check, I was astonished when the waitress bends down and informs us, “service is not included in our meal". As someone who has lived in the EU for the past 15 years, I was speechless. Even though I advise my friend not to feel pressure, he, as an American, over tipped. He was extremely generous to say the least. The saddest part of all, I can say without a doubt, not one single local was told tip was not included. As tourist, we are paying tax to visit the city and spending money purchasing goods and eating at recommended restaurants. This is not about money, it's about how some restaurants take advantage of non locals. For sheer principal, I would not recommend Mariceanella to any tourist. There are numerous restaurants, with better service better food, which deserve tourist time and money. Don't bother going to...